The Marshall County Council on May 2026 approved several routine but consequential items: salary ordinance updates and reclassifications, applications for small grants, and multiple budget transfers and additional appropriations.
Council actions included approving salary-ordinance changes discussed earlier by the job-classification subcommittee. The council approved ordinance 2026-9 (motion by Mr. Shattuck, second by Mr. Masterson) to enact recommended reclassifications and pay adjustments, including designating a counselor as full-time path 3 exempt at $2,630.40 biweekly and adopting a weights-and-measures inspector classification with an annual cost noted in the ordinance discussion.
The sheriff requested approval to apply for the 2027 CHERPA (Comprehensive Highway Injury Reduction Program) grant; the council approved the application by motion (moved by Mr. Patterson, seconded by Mr. Shattuck). The sheriff also presented a commissary report and said that recent FCC caps on inmate phone charges will reduce the commissary fund in coming years; the council accepted the commissary report.
The council also approved the Marshall County Council on Aging’s request to apply for a Section 5311 rural transit grant. "We're asking for a budget of $726,822 this year," said Miss Holiday, executive director of the Marshall County Council on Aging, which operates county public transit. She said the proposal assumes about $64,000 in fare revenue and a federal share of $331,411, and includes funding requests for three vans (two replacements and one expansion). The council voted to approve pursuing the grant.
Other budget actions: the council approved additional appropriations totaling $102,763 from the LIT special-purpose fund for repairs, an additional $2,557.51 for local public health repairs, a $70,000 transfer from the LIT special-purpose equipment lease into an equipment maintenance account, and a $3,119 appropriation for Guardian/CASA building grant services. The council also approved an $11,510.85 additional appropriation for solid-waste postage, communications, equipment repair and site improvements under ordinance 2026-4 (parenthetical 2).
Administrative actions included approval of April meeting minutes and acceptance of two invoices (one for $450 and one for $343.75). The council assigned members to verify compliance for several long-standing abatements and adjourned following a public-comment period that produced no speakers.
What comes next: Several of the approved applications (CHERPA, Section 5311) require follow-up by staff and grant-writing/administrative steps. The council’s working session on tax options was scheduled separately; the budget votes do not change that planned analysis.